Disappointing Action, Weak Script, Mediocre Acting, Annoying Music

Rating: 3/10 (11 July 2013)

Man builds 200-foot robots to fight gigantic monsters emerging from a rift at the bottom of the ocean.
I think this movie may be good for a 16-year-old or younger boy. Otherwise, the stupidity of the story and weaknesses in the acting take you too much out of the action.
From the trailer, I was waiting to be disappointed by why it takes two people to control one robot. Turns out, the neural connection between the machine and man would overload the mind of one brain. Fine. Here's a better solution: nobody gets in the thing and a team of people operate it remotely. Look, I know the point is the show lots of action, but why start off with this silly contrivance? Sure, it's supposed to set-up for powerful emotions when one robot "pilot" gets his partner torn from right next to him, but there could have been better ways to create this situation. It could be pilot, co-pilot. Or navigator and weapons.
Then, are robots really the best way to fight these monsters? They say even bombs and missiles are ineffective, yet some of the robots have missiles and other traditional weapons built as part of their arsenal. Either they are or they're not effective. Make up your mind.
But, I get it. It's all an excuse to watch big robots box big monsters. Fine. But, the fight scenes generally disappoint. Technically the film is fine, but viscerally, I just wasn't there with our heroes during most the battles. There were moments in the Hong Kong fight scene, but even that didn't maintain its occasional high levels of excitement.
And the acting was mediocre and made worse by what I guess was poor directing and a lame script. The only memorable line is when one pilot says to his brother as they're about to do battle, "Don't get cocky." That was awesome in "Star Wars." Here, it just made me think of how much I'd rather be watching that movie.
The character traits that are supposed to make us care are so shoved in and over the top that it never truly connects to us on an emotional level. Yes, it's sibling pilot teams, and father-son pilot teams. But, just saying they're related and share a bond doesn't make us feel that connection. And so many characters are so cliché and overacted it's as if they're in a B-movie. It is a popcorn flick, but at its budget and pedigree, I expect more from the performances.
Finally, perhaps the most distracting part of the film is its score. The movie's music pretty much consists of one theme six notes long repeated and used throughout the movie. I started cringing each time I heard those same six notes (actually, three notes played forward then backward).
This film makes Michael Bay look like Orson Welles and "Transformers" the full-color "Citizen Kane" of robot movies.